From the serene beauty of the Sacred Forest Meadow to the black horrors of the Shadow Temple, Ocarina of Time is hailed for its well-imagined story, beautifully told. Not surprising, considering Nintendo entered a golden age in which they transformed their already wildly creative, wildly popular 2 dimensional hits like Super Mario Bros, Super Metroid, and The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past into even bigger 3 dimensional wonders; really, the beauty behind games like Super Mario 64, Metroid Prime, and Ocarina of Time was in their inclusion of all the elements that have already made their 2D predecessors great games while expanding them into even more revolutionary platformers, shooters, and RPGs.
Again, the beauty behind The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time was its success as a graphically and artistically beautiful 3D rendering of all the elements plus more that made the 2D games so good. Link still has to find items and kill bosses (and magnificent 3D bosses they were), but now he's got a whole new host of puzzles to solve and items (both new and familiar) to do it with. All in all, virtually anyone in the gaming world will rate this game a perfect 10.
Because Ocarina of Time already accomplished a gorgeous 3 Dimensional Hyrule, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princesss could merely expand upon Ocarina of Time's central recipe for success, but on the Wii, Twilight Princess had several chances to outdo its predecessor on other factors: the Wii remote brings life to an all new way to hack your way around your enemies, and an unprecedented cutting edge aiming system; and the plot? 2 Generations of console later Nintendo could *surely* whip up a story at least as engaging as Ocrarina's; what? items? Can they get *even badder* on this release?; and on an auditory level, the Wii's storage capacity permits for a fully orchestrated soundtrack AND characters that actually speak! (The latter of which Nintendo rejected almost spitefully even during the Gamecube years.) Nintendo had on several levels it's chance to make this game in every way *at least* as groundbreaking as Ocarina of Time.
Graphically, it didn't beat Ocarina, it demolished it. Techniques like bloom blighting and partial cel-shading, plus the Gamecube's graphical superiority to the N64 made Hyrule even more gorgeous (just look at the water!!! ^^) But even then, Nintendo could've done better. 1--> Twilight Princess was designed for Gamecube... If it'd been a Wii exclusive Nintendo would've had the chance to take the beauty even further (wasted opportunity 1).
When it comes to gameplay, the Gamecube version evolves very little from OoT or Wind Waker-but on Wii, it's a whole other story. Slash with your sword and mind your aim-you got a very interactive experience in your hands! On another note the puzzles become very interesting when you incorporate Link's Sacred Wolf form into the picture. (Dig for buried treasure, use your senses to uncover secrets and to track scents, and take advantage of Midna's powers to take down the shadow beasts) Items have never been better, either! Shoot, hang, bash, or even ride your way around with Link's new arsenal. 2--> Bosses got bigger, too, but they didn't get badder :S Even the final battle fell depressingly short of OoT's epic battle scenes :/ (wasted opportunity 2.)
Sound: time for a long awaited fully-orchestrated soundtrack! NOT! With the enlarged Wii disc storage capacity, Nintendo had the perfect opportunity to pull this off; but, because they insisted on keeping TP a Gamecube project, the storage limits the Gamecube imposed failed to allow for full-orchestration, so 3--> Nintendo just stuck to midi. Again... (wasted opportunity 3) And (as expected), 4--> Nintendo spat in the face of wasted opportunity 4 and decided to used the bubble text system instead of full voice acting like Zelda's contemporaries, *again...*
But among the 4 principle failures listed above, Twilight Princess still featured a plot at least as engaging as Ocarina of Time's. It succeeds well on its own: all the way through. You'll constantly be kept guessing, "Who is Midna?" "Who is the Twilight King? and where does his power come from?" "What are the fused shadows?" And nothing's more epic than when by the sweat of your brow you find the answers. Between Ocarina of Time and Twilight Princess I would rate both stories as well-imagined and well told as the next, but it wouldn't surprise me if a lot of people would put Twilight Princess' plot above Ocarina's.
Despite Nintendo's epic failure to reach the limits of the Wii's graphical system, Twilight Princess still defeated Ocarina of Time graphically and artistically. The innovative Wii controls come out way above the B and C buttons on the N64. All in all a fascinating game, but it still could've been better! If Nintendo had only designed it as a Wii exclusive and completely orchestrated it; developed the textures, art and graphics even more; given the characters their say via full voice acting; and finally increased the battle difficulty ever so slightly, especially on the titanic yet disappointingly easy bosses =\
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess-did it beat Ocarina of Time? Legitimately, no. I don't think it did. While Twilight Princess *did* succeed in the big things (gameplay and plot ALWAYS come first), it failed in the little things. Failure to incorporate full-orchestration and voice acting, to make the bosses bigger AND badder, and to take full advantage of the Wii's graphical abilities cost Twilight Princess the perfection that made Ocarina of Time what it was and still is today.
What do you think? Did Twilight Princess beat Ocarina? What's your say in it? ^^
